67
LEVIATHAN
Iturned in a slow circle, fists clenched at my sides. That bastard had laid hands on her. He’dhurther. If June hadn’t been here, I would have killed him. I would have painted the walls with his blood.
When the door opened again, I nearly let out a howl of rage and rushed forward, thinking it was Anders returning. Instead, Mr. Hollis was backing his way in through the door, pulling a small pushcart.
“June, girl? You’ll never guess what I found at a yard sale this morning,” he called, a smile on his face as he looked over his shoulder. When he saw me standing there, shaking with rage, his smile faltered.
“Uh…is everything okay?” He glanced around the store. “Where’s June?”
“Gone,” I said, my jaw clenched so hard the word sounded more like a grunt. “She left with Anders. I need to go, Mr. Hollis.”
Walking forward on stiff legs, I nodded to him and pushed through the door. The cool air washed away some of the heat that had built up in my body. When was the last time I was this angry? When those Red Maw pricks had attacked June?Probably, but this was worse. At least then, I had been able to lash out, attack, and kill the ones who’d wronged her. Here? I couldn’t. Anders was the alpha. With one word from him, I’d be banished for the second time in a century. If I wanted to find out who killed Naphele, Ineededto have access to the town. Also, the thought of being separated from June made me want to fall apart, to shatter and melt into nothing all at the same time.
With my emotions roiling inside me, I shifted. In my wolf form, many of the more human sentiments dulled, but even my wolf raged at the way Anders had touched her, and he yearned to tear his throat out. I ran, pushing my body to its limits. I ducked into the forest, bobbing, weaving and ducking trees and branches. The faster I ran, the better I felt, and after nearly an hour, most of my rage had burned off.
Stopping to catch my breath, I sat back on my haunches, panting and letting my tongue loll from my mouth. The crinkling sound of feet running on leaves caught my attention. Perking up my ears, I homed in on the direction of the sound, trying to figure out if someone was stalking me. But they were heading in the opposite direction, moving at an incredible speed. It sounded like someone else was sprinting out their anger and pain.
Curiosity getting the better of me, I stood and ran toward the sound, hoping to figure out who was in the forest with me. My chase brought me to a ridge that ran along a small creek on the outskirts of town. June was racing along it.
Had I been in my human form, I would have laughed. June angled to the right, heading down toward the creek. I ran until I was beside her. She glanced over and only slowed when she realized I was there. Rather than stopping, she moved over, still sprinting, and nudged me with her shoulder.
I nudged back, accepting the obvious challenge, and then the two of us bolted forward, racing. Her speed was on par withsome of the fastest wolves I’d ever seen, but it was still no match for mine. After another mile of running, she trotted to a stop. Turning, I circled around and stopped beside her as she shifted back to her human form and sat down on the forest floor.
“Wanna talk?” I said after I’d shifted back.
June took a long, deep breath and let it out before speaking. “It’s not what you think.”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. All that matters is what I saw. I saw that prick put his hands on you. That’s not okay, June.”
She ran her hands through her hair and cast a sidelong look at me, her face a mask of embarrassment.
“Fine,” she huffed. “I’m goddamn pissed, all right.”
“As you should be,” I agreed.
“It’s why I came out here for a run. I needed to cool down.”
I grinned at her. “And here I thought you were chasing me down on purpose.”
She smirked and shrugged a shoulder. “That was a happy accident.”
“I don’t believe in coincidences.”
She gave me a sardonic grin. “Isn’t our entire relationship almost entirely based on coincidences?”
Fair point.
“I’ve calmed down now,” she went on. “We talked about it after we left the store. I basically told him the same thing you said. That it wasn’t okay that he touch me like that.”
“Basically?” I said. “What does that mean? Because the only thing he needs to hear is my fist hitting his goddamn face.”
“You have to admit it was a bad look, right?” she said, ignoring my threat. “What he saw when he walked in on us?”
“I don’t care what he saw. That was a private moment between us. Fuck him.”
She sighed and looked off into the forest. This was not going well. We’d been having fun in our wolf forms, now this. Life wasalways so much easier as a wolf. It was part of why I’d spent so much time in that form. Sure, it had extended my life, but it was so simple to explore the woods and wilderness and not have to deal with all these human issues.
